Happy Recovery Day

I'm currently pursuing the post-Christmas traditions of arbitrating squabbles among overstimulated kids, reading a book I got as a present (David Sedaris' latest — hilarious), and wincing when I look at leftovers.

It would be a shame to ignore the internet traditions, though. So go read John Scalzi's 10 least successful holiday specials of all time, a seasonal favorite. The Ayn Rand Christmas special is my favorite, in large part because of the hate mail and angry responses it provoked from objectivists and Rand-fans. Those groups — or, at least, the people among them who take objectivism and Rand very seriously — are in my experience seem to be a rather ironically thin-skinned lot, albeit adept at wrapping a level of sensitivity appropriate to a eight-year-old girl in a warm protective blanket of polysyllabic blather. Hence:

The links below go to materials parody or otherwise make fun of Ayn Rand and/or Objectivism. Straightforward criticisms of Objectivist ideas or criticisms of Objectivists can be found on separate pages.

Parody and ridicule can be done purely for humor, or they can be a particularly malicious form of criticism. When done as criticism, humor allows greater latitude for the critic to claim or imply things about the subject that could not be proven with normal arguments or evidence. This can include claims and implications that are exaggerated or even outright false. It is left for the reader to interpret the intent of the items listed below, but when considered as arguments, parody and ridicule should always be viewed with caution.